#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

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Events Archive

Inauguration of the exhibition "Invisible tragedy. The Holocaust of Roma women "on the Bug" (1942-1944): deportation, humiliation, starvation, contamination, extermination"

August 2, 2023

The drama of Roma women in the Holocaust in 1942-1944 is presented in unique exhibition for Moldova, between 2 and 23 August, at the National History Museum of Moldova. The exhibition, a premier for the Republic of Moldova, presents photo-documentary testimonies of the drama of deported Roma women, exterminated during the Second World War in the concentration camps located on the territory between the Dniester and the Bug rivers. At the same time, the exhibition pays tribute to all the victims of Roma ethnicity, stressing the dangers posed by war and the need to combat all forms of discrimination and hate.

The commitment of the Republic of Moldova to promote the memory of the Holocaust and the culture of tolerance in order to combat racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance was reconfirmed by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture Ana Varzari.

Laura Hruby, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the United States to Moldova, spoke about the effort to counteract any form of discrimination, including against Ukrainian refugees who flee the deliberate war provoked by Russia. She emphasized the need to avoid attempts to justify the Holocaust.

Between 1942 and 1944, some 25,000 Roma from Romania, including 2123 sedentary Roma from Basarabia, were deported and exterminated in concentration camps located between the Dniester and the Bug.

For the first time in Moldova, the Roma Holocaust is commemorated from the perspective of women, said UN Women Moldova Country Representative Dominika Stojanoska. She reiterated the need for continued support for Roma women who are still subject to discrimination based on gender and ethnicity.

In 2015, the European Parliament, through a special Resolution, proclaimed August 2 as the European Day of Commemoration of the Holocaust against the Roma. On July 22, 2016, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova voted "Declaration regarding the acceptance of the Final Report of the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, chaired by Elie Wiesel", and later the Government approved an Action Plan with which the Republic of Moldova fully committed to the efforts of the international community to study the Holocaust and to commemorate its victims: the Jews and the Roma.

There is only one way to free ourselves of inter-ethnic hatred - mutual respect, said Dmitri Moruz, the Director of Inter-Ethnic Relations Agency, who expressed the hope that next year Roma Holocaust Day will be commemorated at a monument that would be built in memory of the Roma.

Researcher Ion Duminica mentioned that the exhibition "The Invisible Tragedy. The Holocaust of Roma Women "on the Bug" (1942-1944): deportation, humiliation, starvation, contamination, extermination" - presents photographs accompanied by memoirs and archival documents that reflect the period of deportations and inhumane treatment of Roma women during 1941 -1944. According to him, it is more relevant than ever to learn not only the glorious side of the war, but the tragedy that any war brings to people. "In order for the Holocaust to never repeat itself, we must know what it was", said Dr. Ion Duminica.

The exhibition "Invisible tragedy. The Roma Women's Holocaust "on the Bug" (1942-1944): deportation, humiliation, starvation, contamination, extermination", is organized by UN Women in collaboration with the "Voice of the Roma" Coalition, the Roma Women's Platform "ROMNI", the National History Museum of Moldova, with the financial support of the United States Government.

The exhibition will be located on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova and will be open to the general public until August 23, 2023. The exhibition "Invisible Tragedy. The Holocaust of Roma women "on the Bug" (1942-1944): deportation, humiliation, starvation, contamination, extermination" is organized by UN Women, in collaboration with the "Voice of the Roma" Coalition, the National Museum of History of Moldova and the financial support of the Government of the States United.